Ok, everyone share some stories from encampment. War stories, something amusing, or something you thought was odd or interesting. I'll start off with a short one.

Last day of encampment, and everyone is tired, especially the staff. At the normal time we got up (5? I don't know, none of us had watches) we were all laying in bed awake, waiting for our Flight Sergeant to start the morning ritual of PT, drill, etc. The trumpet goes off in the distance, and we are still waiting for the Flight Sergeant to come out. After a while, our First Sergeant comes out in his pajamas. He mumbles,

"Ok, guys, time to get up." Then he stumbles back over to his bed, and everyone can hear him flop back down to go to sleep.

It was, I think, the third night of the '05 SER Winter Encampment. I was on CQ, the first shift, right after lights out. I'm patrolling down the hall way when my flight commander and another Flight Commander in my squadron come out of the showers with towels around thier waists. There is also assorted cadet staff and my partner in the hall too. Suddenly about half way down the hall they drop their towels and calmly proceed the rest of the way down the hall to the Cadet Officer's room. It was pretty funny after encampment, but it seemed pretty messed up then..

There was also the time that my flight commander tossed an apple core into some bushes while we were drilling. My Flight Sergeant starts tearing into him about not littering. After the good Sgt ran out of breath my flight commander calmly pointed out that apples are fruit, and therefore totally, rapidly biodegradable...

At a Army Ranger/Sniper demonstration, a group of people volunteered, including me. Best volunteer I ever made. They gave everyone a rifle, or in my case an M249 SAW, with blanks, and let everyone who volunteered shoot off some ammo. I had fun blasting away at invisible enemies, and stood up after my belt was gone. I looked over at another guy who had an M249 SAW. He was firing a couple bursts. Now this is one of those seemingly three feet tall, twenty pound guys (huge exaggeration, but you get the point. He was really small). He finally decided to let loose. While wasting the belt, everyone watched as he was pushed back five feet. He finally stood up with a big grin on his face, covered in dirt. Probably the coolest thing I have ever seen happen while someone shot a gun.

Also at the demonstration, "terrorists" drove up and kidnapped a cadet colonel. She was so scared, it was amazing. Of course, as the terrorists drove away, another sniper team moved in, took out some of the stragglers, while a Ranger detachment disabbled the SUV with two HMMWVs with Brownings and an M240B.

The coolest introduction was also at that demonstration. We marched out into nowhere, going "where are our instructers?" we marched past one, and stopped two feet in front of one. Both were hiding in the grass with their gillie suits on. One of the snipers was our TAC officer.

At my second encampment our squadron all qualified on the Air Force range with M-16a2's. I was one of only 4 to score in the Expert range. Unfortunatly due to CAP regs I couldent wear the ribbon.

At my last Wing encampment I served with the Comm/Sec Flight. One day I was sitting in quarters watching cable just after my shift and the cadet commander walks by with a basic cadet. The cadet see's me (I was a 16 year old cadet at the time) and asks the commander why I get to watch TV. CC yooks down and says" He's more important than you are, get moving". Turns out the basic cadet had been "killed" on road guard duty.

The next day I got to confiscate the cadet first sergeants radio for improper use and banned her from speaking on the encampment net.

One guy I knew was kind of strange, but a nice guy once you got to know him. Just to be completely random, he brought his "Hawaiian Witch Doctor" mask. One of the guys there had a surefire G2, and so they hid in one of the tents. When one of our sergeants would go in to get something from their gear, he would rise up slowly and dance around grunting while someone strobed with the surefire. It was amusing and kinda strange.

My flight had the worst military bearing when I went to encampment. It wasn't necessarily because we were poorly trained/undisciplined, it was because of our flight sergeant. He wasn't exactly the "yelling" type, so every single time he got loud his voice would crack like a pubescent teen. Hear that hundreds of times in a week, and you're bound to let loose a few chuckles.

I remember a encampment flight sergeant that caught everyones attention with his boots. The dumb kid brought Clorfam combat boots. We never did find out how he got them or why he brought them to encampment but he caught **** for it all weekend.

I remember a encampment flight sergeant that caught everyones attention with his boots. The dumb kid brought Clorfam combat boots. We never did find out how he got them or why he brought them to encampment but he caught **** for it all weekend.

I would be afraid to wear those...

My flight was also short on discipline. We had maybe four or five cadets that I would consider 'good'. We had this one 12 year old that make techno noises while we were in formation, this huge kid that had some serious anger problems (he threw a cadet across the room because he got ticked off for no apparent reason).

And our Flight Sgt. Oh my. On our first night while we were squaring away our wall lockers he storms into our room tells us they are wrong (we had them organized exactly like out OIs said) and proceded to tear everything out of them and spread it all over the room. He also yelled at us so much (and usually for no apparent reason) that he totally lost his voice by day four. He was all hoarse for the rest of the week.

And our Flight Sgt. Oh my. On our first night while we were squaring away our wall lockers he storms into our room tells us they are wrong (we had them organized exactly like out OIs said) and proceded to tear everything out of them and spread it all over the room. He also yelled at us so much (and usually for no apparent reason) that he totally lost his voice by day four. He was all hoarse for the rest of the week.

The first Encampment I went to as a Cadet I was roomed with a guy who would sleepwalk. The second to last night, he gets out of bed, and decides to go for a walk. He walked right past the "fire guard" (who apparently was asleep) and walked about 1/4 mile into an Army cantonment. He was brought back by the MP's and we all were waken up and forced to go outside to get "lectured" too about looking out for each other.

The last ENC I went to as a Cadet we had an AF Major bring weapons and vehicles and ammo from Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Bolling AFB. HE was the Encampment Training Officer and I was on the cadet training staff that year. The third to last day, the FBI comes and wakes me and my roomates up looking for this Major. As it turned out he was not an AF Major, but "played one on tv" (as in he pretended to be an Officer). So I along with like 12 others were questioned by the FBI, and we got to watch as he was taken away by the FBI, the Army and AF special investigation folks. We later read he spent 6 months in Federal Prison. (This happened pre 9-11, I am sure his jail time would have been more like 30 years if he were to do that today).

On the Senior Member side, I had one cadet steal a van, one cadet get caught in a "compromising postion" with another cadet of the opposite sex, and one cadet arrested for shoplifting from the PX (I think he took a Coca-Cola and some Cd's).

How about stealing a belt of ammunition off of an Air Force firing range and showing it off at the squadron office when you get home.

That would be one for the Air Force OSI to investigate and prosecute. I see 4 possible criminal (felony) charges with that, the least of which would be theft of government property. In todays world, things like that are taken seriously, and usually end up with some jail time.

This really didn't happen did it? (Don't answer that question, it may actually drag you into the case).

I saw some pretty messed up stuff in my time with CAP. My rank issues, the confusion about my ribbons and badges, my difficulties with cadet protection policies, I knew of a person that was rumored to provide sexual favors at CAP functions, etc...

A lot of the people on this board dont belive me when I mention some of the smaller problems we had, it has to have been a localized thing because from what I see on this board your units and commands dont have these problems.

A lot of the people on this board dint believe me when I mention some of the smaller problems we had, it has to have been a localized thing because from what I see on this board your units and commands dint have these problems.

Oh it happens everywhere. Some are better at sweeping it under the rug than others, and still a few are able to get rid of the problem people in one big swoop.